LightSquared is a wireless venture that seeks to create “convenient connectivity for all.” But, as the part-time Phil Falcone biographers among us know full well, it stands to do much more. In short, it will make or break backer Harbinger Capital. Success will mean billions for Falcone and his investors, who are more or less being held hostage until this whole thing pans out. Failure will mean Wilbur Falcone looking for a new benefactor on the 5:54 Metro North to Greenwich.
As one can expect when one is doing ground-breaking, visionary-esque work, LightSquared has encountered some opposition. The yachting community worries the interference will cause them to get lost at sea. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it “may degrade precision services that track hurricanes, guide farmers and help build flood defenses.” Mars is similarly pissed. Last week brought news that LightSquared caused “interference to 75 percent of global-positioning system receivers examined in a U.S. government test,” though that won’t matter much if this thing runs out of cash, which it just might. Continue reading »
You know who could use some good news right about now? Phil Falcone. You know what doesn’t constitute good news? This crap: Continue reading »
For about a year now, hedge fund manager Phil Falcone’s relationship with his investors has been a bit rocky. While many expressed displeasure at his decision to tie up a good chunk of money in a wireless bet that may or may not pan out, what really set a lot of people off was Falcone’s decision, last November, to loan himself $113 million from a fund in which redemptions has been suspended, in order to pay personal taxes he hadn’t set aside enough cash to cover. Since then, Phil has not only paid the $113 million back, but 1) proved he learned his lesson re: borrowing money from humorless clients (in July he failed to pay $201,101 in property taxes, which he could have loaned himself from you know who but didn’t) and 2) offered investors interested in redeeming the opportunity to receive illiquid shares of his new company, or to sell their stakes on Craigslist. All of which is to say, he’s grown a lot in the last year. BlueLine fund investors, who were told in Harbinger’s most recent letter that their redemptions have been suspended, should keep that in mind. Continue reading »
LightSquared is a wireless venture that seeks to create “convenient connectivity for all.” But, as the careful listeners among us know full well, it stands to do much more. In short, it will make or break backer Harbinger Capital. Success will mean billions for manager Phil Falcone and his investors. Failure will mean Wilbur Falcone going back to where it all began, peddling ZJ’s on the 5:54 Metro North to Greenwich.
As one can expect when one is doing ground-breaking, visionary-esque work, LightSquared has encountered some opposition. The yachting community worries the interference will cause them to get lost at sea. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it “may degrade precision services that track hurricanes, guide farmers and help build flood defenses.” Mars is similarly pissed.
The most recent hostility came last week from various parties claiming that the White House pressured certain officials to change their testimony before Congress to favor LightSquared, in order to help the network’s plans to move forward. Now, any and all donations the company’s CEO and Falcone have made to Democratic organizations are being scrutinized. Earlier this morning, Phil told Fox Business that allegations of influence via money sicken him (“People think we’ve made contributions to grease the wheels, that is so wrong, it’s disgusting,”) and this afternoon, took the time to explain the impetus for one donation in particular. Apparently all roads lead back to a woman with many fans round these parts. The First Lady of the hedge fund industry. Her Excellence: Lisa Maria Falcone. Continue reading »
The four-star Air Force general who oversees U.S. Space Command walked into a highly secured room on Capitol Hill a week ago to give a classified briefing to lawmakers and staff, and dropped a surprise. Pressed by members, Gen. William Shelton said the White House tried to pressure him to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a company tied to a large Democratic donor. …
Now the Pentagon has been raising concerns about a new wireless project by a satellite broadband company in Virginia called LightSquared, whose majority owner is an investment fund run by Democratic donor Philip Falcone. Gen. Shelton was originally scheduled to testify Aug. 3 to a House committee that the project would interfere with the military’s sensitive Global Positioning Satellite capabilities, which control automated driving directions and missile targeting, among other things. According to officials familiar with the situation, Shelton’s prepared testimony was leaked in advance to the company. And the White House asked the general to alter the testimony to add two points: that the general supported the White House policy to add more broadband for commercial use; and that the Pentagon would try to resolve the questions around LightSquared with testing in just 90 days. [Daily Beast, earlier]
As you know, Harbinger Capital has a big bet going on a wireless company called LightSquared. Should it succeed, Phil Falcone will make billions and his investors will receive the triple digit returns they scored on subprime. Should it fail…it’s an outcome to dire to even think about but will most likely involve the Grammy-award winning Wilbur Falcone being forced to go back to playing Three-card monte in the UBS parking lot just to put food on the table. While LightSquared has so far encountered some opposition (as one often does when one is doing groundbreaking, visionary-esque work), the company has most recently been making the case that its satellite system will be huge for “coordinating enforcement and emergency response teams during natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina.” According to various US agencies, it’d be the least they could do, as LS might screw up the tracking of future natural disasters.
Philip Falcone’s LightSquared wireless service needs more testing because it may degrade precision services that track hurricanes, guide farmers and help build flood defenses, Congress is being told today. LightSquared’s signals may disrupt precise gear that reads data from the satellite-based global-positioning system, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Transportation Department and a federal advisory body said in testimony prepared for a hearing by the House science committee.
“We support further testing of LightSquared’s proposal,” Mary Glackin, a deputy under secretary at NOAA, said in the testimony obtained by Bloomberg News before the hearing. Concerns include LightSquared’s potential effect on a satellite system that increases accuracy of hurricane tracking, Glackin said. Options for mitigating interference would be limited because the GPS satellites are in orbit and cannot be modified, she said.
According to LightSquared, Glackin and her friends can go fuck themselves. Continue reading »
LightSquared, the wireless-broadband company owned mostly by Harbinger and its disgruntled former investors has had a good run recently, announcing a spectrum deal with Sprint, helping with Hurricane Irene, and not actually killing anyone yet (that we know of). You might think that it’s well on its way to fulfilling its mission of increasing competition in the wireless broadband industry.
But it’s not enough for the Department of Justice, which today sued to block the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. The DoJ’s suit relies on the conclusion that wireless is basically a 4-party national game (among T, VZ, S, and T-Mobile), and gives short shrift to the notion that smaller regional wireless companies can be counted on to provide competition and limit price gouging by an engorged AT&T. From the complaint:
Continue reading »
This comes as a bit of a surprise as we were under the impression LightSquared was still in the testing/trying to prove it’s not going to cause “devastating interference,” sink a battleship, kill some people/working out the kinks phase. Still, it’s wonderful to hear regardless, not just since it’s nice thing to do but because it suggests this thing might actually work, and Wilbur Falcone may not have to start asking for his old shift at Rick’s Cabaret just to put food on the table. Continue reading »
As you know, Harbinger Capital currently has a big bet going on a wireless company called LightSquared. Should it succeed, Phil Falcone will make billions and his investors will receive the triple digit returns they scored on subprime. Should it fail…we don’t even want to go there but someone will need to take in the family’s award-winning singing and dancing pig, who’s made it clear he “doesn’t do” 2-bedroom rentals North of 86th Street. So far, unfortunately, LightSquared, illiquid shares of which were recently awarded to redemption-seeking investors, has encountered a few bumps in the road (as one often does when one is doing groundbreaking, visionary-esque work). Most recently the company has been making the case that its satellite system will be huge for “coordinating enforcement and emergency response teams during natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina.” On the flip side, according to a new study by the FAA, it might kill a few hundred people. Continue reading »
As you know, Harbinger Capital currently has a big bet going on a wireless company called LightSquared. Should it succeed, Phil Falcone will make billions and his investors will receive the triple digit returns they scored on subprime. Should it fail…we don’t even want to go there but the victims will not be faceless and include but are certainly not limited to Lisa Falcone’s outfits (people in and of themselves) and the family’s cabaret performing pig. So far, unfortunately, LightSquared, illiquid shares of which were recently awarded to redemption-seeking investors, has encountered a few bumps in the road (as one often does when one is doing groundbreaking, visionary-esque work). Last month, it was reported that government tests indicated the company would not only cause “devastating interference” to all GPS devices in range but, according to the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Systems Engineering Forum, would “degrade global-positioning system navigation devices that are nearby and as far away as outer space.” LightSquared responded by promising “a workable solution for the small number” of GPS devices “that may be at risk,” but now it seems the venture has bigger problems than Mars on its hands– the boating community, which is pissed. Continue reading »
Earlier this morning, LightSquared, the big wireless bet currently being waged by Phil Falcone, made the exciting announcement that the venture has raised an additional $265 million in funding from investors old and new. While the news is heartening and brings the total amount secured $2.3 billion in the past year, LightSquared and Phil are still quite far from their goal. Continue reading »
